Heaven Falls
by Justanothersinger
Summary: "Perched on an island, adrift on the sea of stars", "On that day, I saw a God." AU where Grima has won, rules over the world and Chrom is chosen to be the felldragon's sacrifice. Chrom/m!Robin
1. To Face a God

Heaven falls

Chapter 1: To face a God.

 _Perched on an island, adrift on the sea of stars  
_  
 _A lonely figure, clothed in black and gold,  
_  
 _I saw the boy, eyes averted, hands clasped,  
_  
 _On that day, I saw a God._

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Sweat trickles down the back of his neck and it's the only thing he can feel. It leaves a cold trail down the back of his neck that makes him shiver.

It's so _cold._

Wasn't this the desert? This was colder than the winters back home in Ylisse. And while his robes were stuffy and restricting in the traditional sense-the kind of fashion that he despised-they weren't meant for this kind of temperatures.

...But it's not like he's going to suffer for much longer though. Is he?

His mouth is set in a grim line and his lips start to crack. Bile on his tongue as he remembers again, the nth time in as many minutes the reason he was here in the first place.

He's wearing the traditional robes of kings long dead, gold grafted into his favorite color. Royal blue. Along with a crown, ridiculously heavy for its size, gold armour plates on his arms and a cape clasped tight to his throat.

Ridiculously fancy attire for a prince being led to his sacrificial bed.

His heart skids as he hears another dull _thud._

It's closer this time. Closer.

 _It's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming...!_

A useless, panicked mantra that beats through his aching head. His teeth are chattering, not just with the cold, his heart is pounding, hard, harder and he grips at the floor underneath hating every second of it with every bit of will he could muster.

Another _thud_ and it's closer.

He remembers things, useless things, what they've said of this monster.

 _Thud._

A dragon on yellowed pages. Ink black scales, eyes of white rot.

 _Thud._

Maw and teeth stained with a dark red.

 _Thud!_

The air around him is stale with chewed meat and warm breath and his stomach heaves.

Oh, Gods.

Oh, Gods.

This was the end for him.

He.

He was about to die. Wasn't he?

The air is almost uncomfortably warm now, but he shivers nonetheless.

 _This was for the people of Ylisse_ , He reminds himself and grits his teeth, trying to stop himself from shivering.

 _Lissa. Emm._

 _Everyone._

For his kingdom to be safe...that's all he wanted.

It has to be right next to him now.

He still can't see through this damned darkness. He doesn't know whether that was a curse or a blessing.

The chains on the floor clink in complaint and he thinks he hears a low, guttural laugh in the next roar.

He can't stop himself from yelling when he's thrown against the wall, a tremendous pressure on his chest.

 _So it wasn't to be a quick and painless death after all?_ He thinks grimly and he hears the beast roar...no. No.

His skin crawls as he realizes that the beast was laughing.

 ** _"Stubborn. Aren't we?"_**

Those weren't his thoughts.

 ** _"Let's see how long you can keep that attitude up."_**

Something probing in his mind and he tastes something sour in the sides of his tongue.

 _I'm going to die anyway. There's no point panicking._

 ** _"And yet your heart now resembles that of a frightened child, prince of Ylisse."_**

Hot breath on his face and he gags again. It's a hundred times worse than the scent of the room.

 ** _"Arrogant, are we_ ****_?"_**

A soft snarl and the pressure of the claw on his chest starts to increase. It was just a few inches to the right of his heart.

 ** _"I always did detest the arrogant ones."_**

He closes his eyes as the monster roars again and over the ringing of his ears, he feels something warm drip on his face.

 ** _"Which is why I will derive much pleasure in killing you slowly. Carefully."_**

 ** _"You will forget your pride, beg for death and I will never give it to you."_**

Chrom closes his eyes and steels his heart.

 ** _"Son of Naga...your nightmare begins now!"_**

With a last roar, the monster's claw would tear into his body and his jaw would snap out his heart.  
That would have happened...eventually, anyway. Just like in the books.

But instead, the roar cuts off abruptly and a sound that's reminiscent of a terrible, guttural scream erupts from the creature.

Chrom opens his eyes.

And...

And he sees a God.

That's the only way he could explain it.

Long white hair and strange markings on his bare skin, robes the color of a lightning-struck night. Gold jewelery of all kinds on his bare legs and arms, even wound on his head.

His back is to him, he's facing the monster, arms spread wide. He was shielding Chrom from the monster.

"Y-you...!"

"Close your eyes!" The boy barks out harshly and Chrom obeys immediately.

The monster screams again.

 ** _"You...! Why do you interfere?!"_**

"You shall not harm him."

The boy says this and his voice is low, deadly. Raw with a power that crackles through the air and makes Chrom's hair stand on end.

The monster shrieks for a final time before before there's a sudden gust of wind, powerful enough to pin Chrom to the wall.

And then...he couldn't feel the monster's presence in the air anymore.

He hears a sigh and the rustle of fabric.

Something soft presses against his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I need to do this. You can't look directly into my eyes. You know why, right?"

"Then", Chrom's voice is hoarse, "Then you are...?"

The boy doesn't answer.

Chrom feels warm fingertips against his cheek.

"Are you alright?"

"Just peachy."

The unexpected response makes the boy giggle a little. "Good. Now that the blindfold's securely in place, I'll help you up now. You may get a bit disoriented, after sitting in one place for so long."

"Right."

Cold hands grab his forearms and carefully help him up.

This close, he notices that the boy is breathing hard. Something pricks at his skin.

"Are you alright?"

"What?"

"You seem tired."

"...I try to avoid fights with evil gods if I can help it." The boy mutters.

"I can understand that."

"You've been sitting in there for hours. Are you tired?"

"I'll live. For as long as I can, anyway." Chrom says grimly.

"You're tough. I thought I was too late when I reached you."

"I'd appreciate the thought nonetheless."

"Even coming from a person like me?"

There's a soft rustle. The blindfold had loosened enough for Chrom to see him.

The boy was staring off to the side with a morose expression.

From here, Chrom could see the tattoos etched under the boy's eyes. Two more sets of eyes tattooed on his cheeks, crossing over his face.

The mark of Grima.

The mark of his vessel.

Suddenly, he's not there and before Chrom could react, the blindfold is pulled up to his eyes again and he hears a soft sigh near his ear.

"But even you won't live that long if you meet my eyes, Son of Naga."

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	2. To See the Sun

Heaven Falls

Chapter 2: To see the sun.

"We're ready to proceed, sire."

He fixes the clasp on his robes and looks up. The soldier flinches and averts his gaze.

What exactly had he been expecting?

"Go on ahead. I'll be there in a bit."

"Yessir."

When the soldier leaves, he faces the mirror again, stares at his reflection. Tugs at his clothes, feels the itching on his throat with his lips set in a grim line.

 _Gods, this is stuffy._

Made of silk and golden threads, the finest that money could buy. A gift from the king of Plegia no less.

It's supposed to be a peace offering. But Chrom knew all too well what these robes were fashioned after.

The robes of kings in the golden age. Simpler times when there existed no war, famine, suffering. No God of Death.

Clearly meant to be ironic. Chrom honestly found it in bad taste.

When he joins his sisters, he attempts to be cheerful. So does Lissa. Only her puffy eyes give her away.

He hugs her tightly and her shoulders shake, he hears a sob and it takes every bit of strength he has not to break down.

She's so _small_. She's still a child, no matter what she says.

And he won't ever see her grow up.

Throat dry and heart heavy, he finally lets go and doesn't look at her even when she falls into step beside him.

He approaches Emmeryn and she gives him a wan smile.

"Chrom."

Her voice is hoarse and he'd never heard his sister like this. There are circles under her eyes…

"Emm...you stayed up again?"

She closes her eyes and shakes her head, "Don't start. Not now."

"But-"

"Chrom, it's of utmost importance that I relay this information to you. Please. Listen."

She takes his hands in hers and he feels a feverish warmth that makes him worry, but can't speak because her expression stops him.

"Today is the day that you are to be sacrificed to the God of Death. At the moment the sun sets, you will be led into Lord Grima's lair and into the dungeons where he awaits." Emmeryn pauses here and takes a shaky deep breath, "Y-y...you are to bow to him three times, forehead to the floor and wait until the preparations have been completed. Don't raise your head and don't look around, otherwise your eyes will meet. If they do, then...th-then..."

"Emm..."

"I don't want to do this", She says suddenly and Chrom swears his sister looks younger than he'd ever seen her. Scared, uncertain, almost tearful, "There surely must be a way to save you, I-"

"Emm. I...It's fine."

"But-!"

"Like this, I can protect you both. And no matter what, we cannot escape from this fate. Haven't we spent twenty years trying to stop this?"

"Chrom…" She whispers softly and there remains no trace of the composure from before; the soldiers are starting to panic at seeing their exalt so stricken. Chrom takes her hand and bows, hiding his face from her.

"I'm taking my leave now. And take care of Lissa for me."

Frederick appears then and Chrom inhales sharply when he sees him carrying Lissa. The girl had apparently gone to sleep in his arms and there were fresh tear tracks on her cheeks.

"Milord, we must go." Frederick says shortly, "The Paladins have complete led their preparations-"

High-pitched screaming cuts him short and before Chrom could react, something heavy slams him against the wall.  
A loud, deafening roar that he would recognise anywhere.

 _ **You will pay for making a fool out of a God!**_

The shortness of breath, the cracking of bones-

And he wakes up, sitting up so fast that his head spins.

"Ngh...w-what?!"

Something bright shining in his eyes and he blinks until he recognizes it as sunlight.

He blinks again and shields his eyes, a blanket dropping to his lap.

"...Huh?"

It's at this point that he looks around and realizes he's sitting on a bed. The sunlight was filtering through some white lace net of some sort hanging from the ceiling, but it doesn't do much.

"Where am I?"

He leans a bit and there are pillows under his back and to his side, he sees a glint of gold.

He looks over and sees...Falchion?

Chrom blinks. Yeah, that was his sword, but what was it doing here?

And then, it occurs to him that he can't remember going to bed. Or this room.

His eyes narrow, his breathing slows on instinct. He moves to the side of the bed, all the while taking the room in.

The room was large and yet the bed seemed to fill up a good quarter of the area. Smooth white sheets and a light wood headboard. There was a window to the side, slightly larger than normal which explained where the sunlight was coming from...and yet for some reason, Chrom couldn't look out of it.

All that he could see was a glaring white from outside, nothing else.

For some reason, that struck him as odd.

The wooden floor feels cool under his bare feet and then he realizes that all his armour is gone. Before he could panic though, he notices the armour arranged on the wooden bench, a little ways away. Neatly laid out, just like his sword.

So he wasn't trapped.

...No, he wasn't trapped.

He was supposed to be dead already, wasn't he?

The events of yesterday night crash down upon him all at once, and when he resurfaces, he has difficulty breathing. A chill riding down the back of his spine.

He was supposed to be dead. But he isn't, he's _alive._

He was alive.

He was alive.

Relief and wonder and dread rise in him all at once.

...But what does this mean? What was he supposed to do now?

...

 _For now, I should put my armour back on._ Even though it's more for looks than anything else, he'd feel better once he's strapped it back on.

Once he's done, he takes in a deep breath and looks around.

 _This is his room._

The boy that helped him yesterday...he told Chrom to sleep and recover his stamina here. He's not here now, though.

...Maybe Chrom should stay in here but...he really doesn't want to stay in one place for so long.

He heads for the door, opens it and steps on through-

-And feels his heartbeat trip as his foot gives way into deep darkness.

"What?!"

He manages to grab the door handle just in time, his other hand reaching up and grabbing at the door itself, even as his body sinks downwards.

 _Calm down!_

He's dead if he let's go now...!

Somehow, he manages to drag himself back up and once he's safe back inside the room, he peers down gingerly.

"...What in the name of the Gods...?""

Past the room's door, Chrom can see nothing but inky blackness. Darker than the night, darker than anything he'd ever seen before.

And apparently, it wasn't very solid.

 _It's like an abyss._ He thinks to himself. Chrom kneels and with one hand braced on the doorway, he reaches his other hand out.

It meets nothing but empty air.

"How..."

Wasn't there a corridor outside yesterday? Chrom would definitely remember if he'd almost fallen to his probably very painful death.

It's at this point that he realizes that there's a strangely heavy weight on his hip. At the side...wait, it's coming from Falchion.

He pulls the handle and flinches at the strange, improbable heat that he feels, even through his gloves?

What?

Is his sword...glowing?

Chrom grits his teeth and pulls the sword out of its sheath and shuts his eyes immediately at the incredibly bright light.

 _Ok, no. That is not normal._

 _What in Gods' name is happening?!_

He holds his sword out and when he finally manages to open his eyes, he sees it.

A trail of shining gold, stretching from the doorway and lighting the way through the dark.

"What is this?" It looked like a pathway of some kind.

...Wait, a pathway?

"Is this my way out?"

Of course, that made about as much sense as why there was a literal abyss outside this room in the first place, but he didn't have any other explanation.

Chrom carefully steps on the gold pathway and sighs in relief as it holds. With his sword raised, he pulls himself over on the path completely and looks up ahead.

He can only see the path in this strange, indomitable darkness.

He takes another deep breath and starts walking.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Had the sword grown less heavy? Maybe not; his arm was getting a slight cramp.

But the light seems to have grown brighter, even warmer somehow.

Chrom can hear the click-clack of his footsteps as he walked and it's a lonely echo. It's a strange feeling, walking blind into a journey to nowhere.

...Wait, but it's not completely dark anymore.

Somewhere along the line, soft balls of light had started to drift along, just out of the edges of his vision.

White, like snow. Staring at them filled Chrom with a strange sense of loneliness.

He didn't...feel safe looking at them. So he looks away and continues walking.

He continues walking until he starts to feel fine grain sand under his feet.

Which is weird because...wasn't he wearing shoes?

He looks down and sees that his feet were bare, just as he'd thought. Also that he was actually standing on sand. Strange white, sparkling sand.

Where did this come from? And where did the darkness go?

He looks around and sees nothing but sloping hills made of more white sand and night that was more deep blue than black. A sky on the cusp of dawn.

There's even a slight wind that rolls through the area, ruffling his hair. Bringing with it a puzzling scent of the sea.

And if Chrom closes his eyes and concentrates, he can hear the faint tinkle of a music box in the distance.

"Where am I?" He asks. Not that's he given up on guessing how the castle's infrastructure worked long ago...

After looking around a bit, he sees the shape of what looked like a rock formation in the distance. It was quite big and far away, but somehow he could see someone perched on one of the edges there.

 _Is that..._

Chrom squints there, his mouth setting into a line. His grip on Falchion's handle tightens as he marches forward, towards the rock.

The music box grows clearer and clearer as he walks and once he stops by the foot of the rock, it's crystal-clear. It reminds him of...underground waterfalls for some reason.

And the rock itself...surprisingly big. It's bigger than a decently-sized castle.

Chrom stares up at it and he can clearly see that the person sitting up there was...it was him.

The boy that saved him yesterday. Arms clasped around a thick, purple coat of some sort, head buried in the fabric.

He doesn't seem to have noticed Chrom yet.

... _I could just walk away. Without him ever noticing._

 _Maybe I could find a way to escape this place._

 _..._

The boy flinches as he hears Chrom approach, but he doesn't turn around.

"I-Is...is that you? The prince?"

"Yeah. Sorry, did I startle you?"

"Kind of. Not many people come here." The boy shuffles a bit, "I'll...keep my eyes closed."

"Right." Chrom sits too, a little ways away from him. For lack of any other topics, he asks, "So it's true then?"

"What?"

"If I meet your eyes...I die?"

"...I'm not entirely sure. I don't want to risk it."

"So you don't know either?"

"No. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You saved my life."

"...You shouldn't be too complacent around me, you know? I could..."

"Still kill me?"

"Not of my own volition." The boy carefully places the cloak on his lap. His head is still bowed, "One day, I will not be here."

"You will...?"

"What do you think 'being the vessel of Grima' entails?" A soft, humorless laugh, "Your sword had led you right to me. I didn't even think that was possible."

"My sword?"

"Naga. One of her last gifts. Before she..." He takes a deep breath, "It was supposed to sense Grima's darkness."

"And it led me to you."

"...I didn't expect a prince to actually be sacrificed this year. The last time, your kingdom had only princesses."

"Yeah, I read about that." And then, it clicks, "Wait, the last time a sacrifice needed to be chosen was 2000 years ago..."

"Yes?"

"You were there for that?"

"...Yes?"

"You...you don't look that old."

And unexpectedly, the boy laughs at that. Possibly at Chrom's confused expression.

"I'm well aware. It's one of the side-effects of housing a God."

"...Don't you have any family? Or loved ones?"

"When you're a literal immortal, you can't...really afford to have any."

The boy's picked the cloak up again, hugging it close to his chest.

"I'm sorry." Chrom says and he means it.

"...You're kind. A warm person. Your kingdom grieved when you were chosen."

"Grieved?"

"It was in the air; _he_ delighted in it." The boy sounds vaguely disgusted now, "You had sisters, did you not?" _  
_

"Yeah, two of them."

"They must miss you."

"...Yeah."

"You will see them again."

"What?"

"You will." The boy repeats, "I'll make sure of that."

"...Really?"

"I said I couldn't afford to have loved ones. I'm speaking from personal experience here. And I know...how much it must hurt for them to lose you."

"...You're a kind person too, aren't you?" Chrom asks and he's smiling now. There's a strange surge of hope in his chest, even when he's trying to ward it off.

"No, I am not." The boy says simply.

"Somehow, I doubt that." Chrom says and then, he pauses, "...Hey. What's your name?"

"My name?"

"Yeah. Mine's Chrom." When he's met with only silence, Chrom backtracks, "Uh. S-sorry. You, um, is it like, uh. Do you...not have one?"

"I didn't have the need for it. Although, I..." Robin raises his head up now to stare at the sky.

When Chrom sneaks a peek at his expression, it's solemn. Sad.

Strangely beautiful.

"I did have a name. I do have one. It's...Robin."

"Robin? That's a nice name."

"Is it?" Robin asks and he sounds almost pleased now. Like a child.

"Yeah. It is."

"Thank you...Chrom."

A strange thing to be thanked for, Chrom thinks. But it's a nice feeling.

"Anytime."

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End file.
